Posts by jaminv

I find it hard to believe that someone could eat breakfast in the morning and still consume less than 1,000 calories.  I really think breakfast is the key.

--J

145 pounds is a good weight for a male who's 5'8" (i'm assuming you're male).  Considering your age, I wouldn't worry much about weight, as long as you have good eating habits and eat healthy.  Your body will take care of the rest, and your natural hunger cues should tell you when to eat. 

It is very possible to gain weight when working out, especially if you're not counting calories (again, there's no reason for you to count calories).  The simple fact is that if you eat more calories that you put out, you will gain weight.  However, because you are working out, a large percentage of this weight will be muscle.  Considering that you weighed 130 pounds before, I think this is a good thing.  5'8" 130 lbs. is pretty small, and a healthier person is going to have a little more meat on their bones. 

Don't quit the cardio.  Cardio is what's going to burn most of the fat and keep it from accumulating.  Weight training is what's going to build muscle.  Keep with both.  Make sure you're getting a decent amount of protein, but there's no reason to go nuts.  Also, make sure you're getting enough carbs to help get that protein to your muscles.  Chances are though, a healthy 19 year old male gets plenty of both.

Again, there's no reason to count calories unless you actually get to be "overweight".  You could reasonably get up to about 160 pounds, as long as you are comfortable with your body.  I am 5'9" and my goal weight is 170 pounds (currently 178).  This is at the high end of healthy, but I have a decent amount of muscle that accounts for much of that weight.

--J

Also, compare your healthy grocery bill to your old grocery bill plus the cost of eating at fast-food restaurants regularly.  I have easily made my diet cheaper by cutting the fast-food out of it.

--J

Foods that may help calm an upset stomach:

• Bananas
• Gingerale
• Tea
• Peppermint or peppermint tea

Eating smaller meals more often may also keep your stomach from stretching, which may mean less pain.

Foods to avoid:

• Coffee
• Onions
• Milk
• Chocolate
• Fried Foods
• Baked Beans
• Alcohol
• Anything prone to causing gas or bowel disruption (like Taco Bell food)

Hope this helps!

--J

Being sick is a special case.  You have an excuse not to exercise.  Better than an excuse, think of it this way:  you exercise because it's good for your body.  You rest when sick because it's good for your body.

I've been down this road.  You want to exercise because you don't want to break your pattern.  You feel guilty because you know you're "supposed" to.  You're not supposed to.  The best thing for you would be to let your body recooperate.  Excerise is stress.  Now is not the time to be putting your body through unneccessary stress.

To vanexxag's point, I was eating constantly when I was sick.  I think it was part the fact that I was bored out of my mind, and part genuine hunger.  My body was fighting off sickness, and I was burning calories.  Despite all I ate, I weighed in the same after 5 days of sickness as I did before.  Many people weigh in less because the illness takes their appetite.  My advisement is to practice intuitive eating: eat healthy, sensible things when you are hungry.  Don't count calories when sick - you don't want to eat less than your body needs either.  Just let your body tell you when you need to eat, and eat sensible things.  Get plenty of vitamins (of course vitamin C is on the top of the list), and don't overexert yourself.  That is the best way to get healthier quickly, then you can ease yourself back into exercise.  Don't overdo it the first few days back, you could end up compromising your immune system, again.

In summary, don't feel guilty because you're not exercising when your sick.  It's not an excuse, it's a genuine health concern.  By not exercising, you are doing what is right for your body.

--J

Thanks for all the support!  I'm glad to see that everyone feels that I have a right to feel good about looking good.

Our business is a manufacturing business.  We do have a production floor, but we're not a machine shop.  Most of our units are assembled by hand.  I don't have to worry about getting dirty or loose articles of clothing getting caught in machines.  Plus, I am an office employee.  I do spend some time working on the production floor, but that time is spent maintaining the computers out there.

I get the "do you have an interview or something?" line all the time.  When I actually think about it, I actually went through a lot of this when I started loosing weight in the first place.  People actually seemed genuinely resentful that I was losing weight.  I just don't understand it.  How can you come down on someone who is doing something positive for themselves - especially if you consider that person a friend.  It seems we're far to short on support, and way to willing to project our own insecurities and shortcomings on someone else.  I'm probably guilty of this myself from time to time.

Thanks again for all the support.  It means a lot to me!

--J

Original Post by cassenyalogan:

Original Post by jperonto:

There's salt substitutes!  And they taste pretty similar!

You had me at hello.

Where? What name? Tell me!!!
(I actually hate salt, except for on cucumber.... which I tend to go overboard, at least when I allowed myself salt anyways)

Morton Lite Salt is what I use.  It has half the sodium of table salt, which is replaced by Potassium Chloride (potassium is what our bodies need to balance sodium).  It tastes the same to me.

--J

I think the most important thing you can do for maintaining weight loss is to think of what you are doing now as a "lifestyle change", not a "diet".  Diets end.  Please tend to think they can go back to their old way of eating when the diet is over, and they can't.  Their old way of eating is what got them overweight in the first place.

When you finally do hit your goal weight, continue calorie counting.  The only difference is now you are trying to hit your maintenance calories instead of 500-1000 calories below it.  This should actually be easier.  Continue counting unit you establish a habit.  Once you have a good feel for what you can eat in a day, you can stop counting - slight calorie fluxuations from day to day won't effect your weight much.  Continue to weight yourself once a week to make sure you aren't gaining unexpectedly.  If you do gain, go back to counting until you are back on track.  It's not that hard to maintain weight.  It's considerably hard to lose it.

The other key factor of maintaining weight loss is not to punish or deprive yourself while losing.  Being too hard on yourself is a recipe for relapse.  Remember, you want to be able to maintain your healthy eating - don't put youself in a position where you're looking for any excuse to go back to your old eating habits.  Allow yourself to eat the foods you enjoy... within limits.  Don't pick a meal plan that too difficult to maintain.  Don't starve yourself.  When you do hit your goal weight, you'll be happy to finally be able to add some calories, but hopefully you won't need to binge on Big Macs and pizzas.

--J

Unfortunately, you're going to have to be patient.  You're not going to be able to lose them quickly, but you will be able to lose them with a bit of perserverance.

Cardio is absolutely the best thing for you.  Personally, I average about 45 minutes of cardio a day, 6 days a week, and I have been able to watch the fat just melt away.   Start out slow, and work your way up.  It may be hard to get yourself to do it, but once you start you'll probably find it enjoyable.

Lifting weights, pull-ups, or chest exercises alone are not going to burn fat efficiently enough.  They will improve muscle tone, but that muscle will still be hidden under fat.  That is not to say that you should neglect weight training.  When you do eventually get rid of the fat, you want to have some toned muscles underneath.  Do cardio almost every day, and weight train every other day.

Of course, none of this is going to work if you don't change your diet.  Believe me, I never wanted to change my diet either, but you can't get there from here without some calorie reduction in between.  Log your current diet, log your activities, and start looking at ways you can get your calories down and your activities up.  Again, start small and work your way up.  Logging you food will help you find your biggest calorie offenders.

Keep in mind, you do not need to deprave yourself to eat health.  I still eat *good* food, and I eat plenty to sustain myself.  You just need to take a closer look at what you're doing to your body - it's likely that you'll want to change after that.  Once you get the ball rolling, there are a lot of resources on this site that will help you determine what to do next.

--J

You're not likely to get very full eating all that junk.  Fiber and protein lead to the feeling of satiety, and you're not likely to get much of that from junk food.   Simple sugars can actually make you hungrier.

On top of just being vitamin deprived, some nutrients actually effect your metabolism.

Yes, you could probably lose weight by eating less calories than you burn - regardless of what you eat - but good luck staying under calories when all the foods you eat are high in calories and low in substance.

Not to mention the myriad of health problems that could arrise from eating like that over an extended period of time: diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, tooth decay, even scurvy...

Also, a 900 calorie diet is not reasonable.  It's called starvation and its borderline anerexia.  I don't know if you were just using it is an example, but I definitely don't want to condone eating disorders.   You should get at least 1,200 calories a day if you are female, 1,500 if you are male.

The best reason to pick a food is because it is low in calories and high in fiber.  Calorie dense foods (more grams of food per calories) are also good.  Vegetables and foods with a lot of water are often the most calorie dense.  Once you really get into your diet, you'll realize that the foods that nature gave us - that we were intended to eat - are almost always the best foods for us, in almost every possible way.

--J

Well, I can see off the get-go that I don't eat as much chocolate as you do.  I've never really been a chocolate fan - dark chocolate especially - so I pretty much avoid it altogether.  I do however have a glass of chocolate milk right after a workout (4:1 carb/protein ratio).  I also occasionally have fudgsicles (100 cals, 2g of fat) as a treat, but I prefer frozen fruit bars (80 cals, no fat).

Also, 47g is still a little low for me.  I should be shooting for 25-30%.  Yours is 23%, and I eat more calories than you do.  You have some good guidelines though.  I've looked over some of the better days, and I can see where I got the fat from.  Sunday I had almonds (1 oz), peanut butter (2 Tbsp), olive oil (about 1 tsp) and cheese (1 oz) all in the same day.  That ranked in at 54g.  Still, I ate 2,046 calories that day, so that only amounts to 22.4%.  I am worried because this is a good day.  Typically I eat much less fat.  Also, I crammed 4 different types of healthy fats into one day and still didn't meet my goal.

I think what I need to do is up my calories by about 250 a day, making my average deficit about 500 calories.  I should dedicate most of those calories to fat: putting cheese on entres, maybe some no-trans fat margarine, olive oil, and nuts.

--J

My diet consists of virtually no trans fats which aren't naturally occurring.  I eat lean meats and low-fat dairy.  I don't eat any commercially fried products - at all.  I eat lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean sources of protein.  This is actually why I'm having trouble getting enough fat in my diet.  With the exception of the fats I've recently added to my diet, hardly anything I eat has more than a few grams of fat per serving.

I've recently been to a doctor, and my cholestrol and blood pressure levels are suprisingly low considering my old diet.  Also, I average about 45 minutes of cardio a day, a large percentage of which is high intensity.  I'm fairly certain that my heart is currently quite healthy.  I am however trying to establish habits I can hold through my life.  I definitely don't want to have diet-related health problems in the future.  When I jump up to maintenance calories, I don't want to have tons of saturated fats in my diet.

So, its probably best if I just stick with healthier fats and establish the good habits now.  Still, I am having trouble getting to where I need to be.  I agree I need more protein and fat and probably less fat.  I do typically get enough protein (about 100g/day), but I usually have to eat a bunch of egg whites (I enjoy hard boiled eggs with no yolks) to get there.  Before I started eating healthy, if you told me I needed more fat and protein my mind would immediately jump to red meat.  I'm trying to find alternatives.

I'm also having trouble cutting carbs.  Many of the foods I enjoy most are loaded with carbs: berries, pasta and potatoes are all carb bonanzas with very little fat.  Also, I'm trying to get enough potassium, which involves eating a potato on most days.  I'm also an ex sugar junkie, so often fruits serve as a replacement.  I enjoy pineapples and oranges because they are very sweet, but again the same problem.

I guess what I really need are meal ideas that are higher in protein and healthy fats, and lower in carbs.  Right now I eat pasta or potatoes most nights.  For lunch I typically have a sandwich with lean meat (high protein and carbs, low fat).  I suppose I could add cheese - that would help a little.  For breakfast, I typically get little or no fat.  Most of my cereals have very little fat, nor do egg whites or fruit.

Thanks,

--J

I am still having trouble getting enough fat in my diet.  Currently I am averaging about 40g of fat per day.  I should be averaging about 60.  I've added peanut butter, almonds, and olive oil to my diet.  I'm still having trouble adding fat through meals, rather than snacks.  I suppose I could add some reduced fat cheese to the occasional entre, but does anyone else have any ideas how I can add some fat to my regular meals?

Also, I am wondering what makes bad fat bad?  Is it the quantity of fat, the quality, or the accompaning saturated fat, cholestrol and sodium that make the difference?  If I can stay under the recommended maximums of these undesirable nutrients, is there any reason I can't have red meat, margarine, or full-fat dairy?  These would be easy ways to add fat to my diet, but I'm told that they are "bad" fats.  I'm not sure I understand why.  Could someone help me understand what the difference is?  I need to know what kinds of fats are right for me.

I'm not sure how relevant it is, but I am male, 32 years old.  I weigh 196 pounds (down from 210), trying to get to about 180 without losing muscle.  My current diet is 1,900 calories or 2,200 calories every other day when I work out (my two-hour workout requires substatial food intake beforehand, otherwise I hit a wall).  I've also added a little wiggle room to go over as long as I am getting good fats.   I am quite active, I typically do about 30-45 minutes of cardio on the days that I don't work out, plus a pretty active lifestyle.  I rest one day a week.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

--J

I had similar dreams when I quit smoking - several times actually.  In the dreams I would be really tempted to smoke, and then eventually I would end up smoking.  Or in some dreams I would smoke as though it were no big deal.  I would wake up and feel as though I had cheated, when in fact I had done nothing wrong.

It could mean a number of things.  Probably it is just temptation manifesting itself in your dreams.  I'm guessing you are occasionally tempted to eat chicken?  Since you are denying yourself this, your subconcious is working out your mixed feelings in your dreams.

What's imporant to know is that you have not cheated in your commitment to yourself.  Though I had those dreams several times, I never actually smoked.  I managed to quit smoking just fine and have not smoked in years.  It can be very difficult to break a habit, especially one you've established through most of your life.  Your mind will play tricks on you.  Just stay the course; those feelings will pass in time.

--J

You know, I think my breakfast habits have changed, I've been running out of time often in the morning.  Also, I've gotten kind of tired of egg whites, so I'm typically not getting as much protein until later in the day.  I've been bringing morning fruit to work instead of eating it with breakfast.  Also, I used to snack on carrots when I got hungry before lunch, but I've forgotten to bring more into work.  I guess my habits have changed a little and I didn't even notice.

Perhaps I could bring some nuts into work.  I actually need more fat in my diet, so maybe some almonds.

cc31: I do occasionally have full dinners, it just depends on the day.  When I come home after 2 hours at the gym, I typically go right for carbs and protein, and don't really make a full meal out of it.  But then some days I make a big dish, large enough to take to lunch the next day.  Even then, I've been coming back for seconds the last week.  I just don't have a full serving again.

I did some calculations and I guess my deficit is actually closer to 800 calories/day.  Should be manageable, but I do have a high level of activity.  Also, I might not be accounting for routine activities that might be burning more than I think.  Perhaps my body is just telling me to put more food in it?

Thanks for your help.

--J